Yeah, Meso-America sounds good, and so do Ancient Scandinavia! The only time vikings have been included in any kind of game that even remotely resembles a city builder game is Settlers II German GOLD edition. Unfortunately the vikings were scrapped when they released it for the 10th Anniversary ED.
I also kind of agree with that city builder games should avoid anything post 1500. Not sure why, it just doesn't fit well with me. It gives me too much of a Civ vibe, and I never really liked Civ or any of its spin offs.
What really makes the city builder games interesting to me is the fact that they are located in history and deal with history few other games do (Age of Empires did, but that's it).
I would love a new city builder game that in terms of graphics looks like Anno 1404, but got the complexity of the old games. What I to find be a lackluster in Anno is how you for example never have to employ a work force, or that ornaments got no purpose at all beyond looking pretty. I love ornaments, I love making good-looking cities. This is something I find missing in the old city builder games too, to some extent, because it is hard to always make a city aesthetically pleasing while at the same time make it functional on the little map space you usually got. Space isn't much of a problem in Anno 1404, so that would be a good upgrade. And the system they have when they just skipped the walkers and instead work with influence radius for each building also solved many other issues (especially when walkers bug...). It also gives a bit more leeway when it comes to city planning. I would also like more outside trade in Anno 1404 that you have in the Impression games series, since in Anno most trade happens between your own cities. I find the idea of having the cities autonymous a bit more interesting.
Anyway, Anno meeting the city builder series would be awesome!
[This message has been edited by sanna (edited 09-23-2010 @ 11:28 AM).]